Holmboe's Ninth Symphony, a commissioned work, is dedicated to the famous French musician and teacher Nadia Boulanger, whom he met in Copenhagen.
Composer Biography
Vagn Holmboe, the composer, entered the Royal Danish Music Conservatory at age seventeen, recommended by Carl Nielsen, a renowned composer and teacher.
Performer Biography
The Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, which performs on this album, started as a theatre orchestra with 26 part-time musicians and grew into a city orchestra with 68 full-time players.
Performer Biography
Owain Arwel Hughes, the conductor on this album, is a leading British conductor who founded the annual Welsh Promenade Concerts and has conducted major works with renowned soloists like Itzhak Perlman.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Holmboe defined symphonic music as being based on synthesis and connection, where the 'line and the tension' are decisive, and immediate contrasts must be subordinated.
Composer Biography
Holmboe's encounter with folk music during a study visit to Romania in 1933-34 significantly influenced his musical style.
Compositional Technique
A dominant compositional principle in Holmboe's music from the mid-1940s to the 1970s was 'metamorphosis,' a process of gradually modifying a theme, motif, or intervals.
